This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at KCL chapter.

It’ll come as no shock that diet culture is everywhere. Whether that’s in the form of diet teas or the Kardashian’s Instagram accounts, the narrative remains the same – women must take up as little space as physically possible to be seen as ‘worthy’.

Although we’ve been bringing back the 90s in recent years, they can absolutely keep their ‘heroin chic’ aesthetic. The intense pressure on supermodels like Kate Moss and the birth of the ‘Victoria’s Secret’ fashion show marked the beginning of society’s long-standing obsession with weight loss. It’s something Jameela Jamil has spoken about frequently on her podcast I Weigh; growing up in the age of glossy fashion magazines, demonising women who dared to exist without starving themselves to obtain an impossible standard of beauty, became a breeding ground for the explosion of eating disorder diagnoses that we’ve seen in the past twenty years.

I remember the onslaught of this messaging in my early teenage years and the effect that it had on me. As someone who was bullied as a child because my body had always existed well outside of the expected norms, the mounting pressure to look a certain way has consumed most of my waking thoughts for the majority of my life. I’m so thankful that in recent years content creators have shifted away from this messaging and towards promoting body inclusivity and diversity. I don’t fear for my little sister in the way I would have for younger me, as there is so much more awareness surrounding how truly ridiculous diet culture is, and always has been.

Perhaps its most heinous invention is the so-called ‘summer body’, and whilst it might be logical to assume that this is simply the body we inhabit all twelve months of the year, but maybe in a pair of shorts, the looming strive towards the ‘summer body’ haunts us each January. Diet culture has us believe that we have to starve and exhaust ourselves before we’re allowed to even step foot on a beach. A quick Google search returns guides promising the perfect ‘summer body’ in 30 days – perfect for all those with exactly the same genetic make-up as whoever wasted their time writing that! It would be laughable if we hyped up the ‘autumn body’, so what’s the obsession with summer? The pervasive messaging is that we daren’t show any skin which doesn’t conform exactly to the equivocally unattainable body goals set for women.

The recent circulation of that picture of Kendall Jenner highlights everything we need to know. Other women’s bodies are none of our business. Realistically, bullying yourself because you don’t look like Kendall is a waste of time. First and foremost because genetically you never could – unless you belonged to the 1% of people in the world with legs like that – but also because (let’s be truthful here), Kendall Jenner doesn’t even look like Kendall Jenner. The Kardashian-Jenner clan are notorious for editing the photos they post on Instagram; why would this be an exception? In a world which praises and favours women who conform to these ideals, we can’t blame these women for editing their pictures, but we can criticise their perpetuation of these beauty myths, particularly without any acknowledgement of their status as ‘influencers’.

Thinking about all of this, it’s not shocking that June 21st has become the dawn of the ultimate summer body! Get ready, we’ve got four months to bully our bodies into an Oh Polly dress! You know, the body that’s helping us navigate a global health crisis…This messaging of the ‘lockdown body’ is nothing new, though – I remember a year ago, being exhausted at the prevalence of messaging demanding that we lose weight and get fit during lockdown. It’s almost as if there’s a market for this sort of thing so the weight loss memo is repurposed and repackaged whenever it suits the industry.

I just want to clear one thing up, indisputably. You do not need to lose weight for June 21st. No ifs, ands, or buts. I promise that – in the nicest way – no one is looking at you. Nobody cares because they’re all just as happy to be out with their mates as you are. The stress of the past year hangs heavily enough without the expectation to look a certain way just to enjoy a few drinks and a boogie to ‘Toxic’ by Britney.

Remember, in the midst of this damaging messaging, that you are unbelievably beautiful – yes, you! And that in a culture that not only preys upon but breeds insecurity, you don’t need to change a single thing.

Why the Only Thing You Need To Do For June 21st is Love Yourself

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